Finally
by RWM1995
Summary: When Lily does what Scorpius should've done three years before.


They're twelve years old when their cousins fall in love. Teddy mysteriously loses interest in Quidditch and suddenly develops table manners, and Victoire's cheeks are permanently flushed scarlet. They spend a good deal of time making cow eyes at one another, and during Vic's graduation speech, she fixes her gaze on him the entire time.

It makes Rose sick.

"Promise me," she says to Scorpius that summer, "that we'll never ruin our friendship by fancying each other, like Vic and Teddy."

He wrinkles his nose in disgust. "I would never!"

"Swear it."

"I swear."

She smiles up at him and takes his hand. "You're my best mate, Scorpius Malfoy."

* * *

He'd recognize the sound of Rose's anger anywhere. Staccato footsteps. Muffled expletives. A slammed door or two. By the time she reaches his bedchamber, he's calculated three different escape routes, all of which, unfortunately, require him leaping from the Head's tower into Madame Pomfrey's herb garden, but since she already knows he's home, that makes him a dead man anyway.

"Scorpius Malfoy!" she howls, rapping sharply on the door. "You won't _believe_ the bullshit my cousin just tried to feed me!"

"Spare me," he yells back, swinging his legs over the side of his bed. "I'm trying to nap."

"You can nap later," she tells him. " _Alohomora_!"

He groans, and the door swings open slowly, framing a disheveled slip of a girl with enormous blue eyes and clenched fists. "Privacy, Rose," he grunts out with a glare. "You've got at least fifty cousins by now; go rant to one of them."

"This is important," she promises.

"So is my rest." _And my life._

"You areshole! I need to tell you what Lily told me today. And it's… I just… Do you love me?" She storms into his bedroom, a whirlwind of tangled curls and flushed cheeks and kinetic energy, and he immediately scrambles to his feet and jams his untucked shirt into his trousers, her question flooding the room with a whole new kind of tension.

"I—Rose— _what_?"

She's close, so close that he can count each freckle on her nose and the number of shallow breaths she sucks in between sentences. "Lily _told_ me you do, she's been telling me for _the past four hours_ , but you _can't_ , you _know_ you can't, it'll fuck everything up! My father will end you, and James will end _me_ , and Godric, Scorpius, how _could_ you?" She breaks off with a little hiccup of a sob and folds her arms over her chest. "Tell me it's not true," she pleads.

He reaches for her elbow. "Red, calm down—"

"Don't 'Red' me, Scorpius," she snaps, pulling away and swiping angrily at her bleary eyes. "Just answer the goddamn question. Was Lily telling the truth?"

He works his jaw back and forth, drops his gaze to his bare feet and the thick carpet beneath. By the time he's able to meet Rose's wide-eyed stare, his silence has proven answer enough. "I didn't mean to," he mutters lamely. "It just… happened."

"When?" she demands in a harsh whisper.

"Does it matter?" he asks miserably, but he knows it does. Everything matters to her. He loves that about Rose. "Fourth year."

"Scorpius," she whimpers, pressing the heels of her hands to her forehead. "How could you? You _promised_."

"I was twelve," he says angrily. "I didn't know shit about love."

"Oh, and now, suddenly, you do?"

He glares at her, and she doesn't flinch. "I never said that."

"You never said anything!" she bites out. "And you never do!" She whirls on her heel and begins to pace the room, the sharp _click_ of her steps punctuating the brief and dismal silence. "You know, all you had to do was tell me. You could've mentioned, at any point over these past seven years, that you fancied me. And—"

"And what? Risked the physical and verbal abuse of your family? Alienated my entire dormitory? Compromised our friendship?"

"Yes, because it's not bloody compromised now," she snarls, and he's so pissed that he grabs her by the shoulders and pins her against the wall, fairly shaking.

"If you're looking for an apology, you're wasting your breath," he hisses, and her mouth trembles.

"You're such a prick," she chokes out. "You promised you wouldn't fall in love with me. You _promised_."

"I didn't plan on it," he says nastily. "And I'm not proud of it. I thought I'd grow out of it but…"

Rose looks up at him, her gaze somewhat softened. "But you didn't?" The question is so quiet he barely hears it, but it elicits a small, sad smile.

"I didn't."

"Scorpius," she breathes, her chest rising and falling rapidly. "Scorpius, I never…" She trails off, her gaze dropping to his mouth. She wants to touch him; she's fighting it, and he can see it in her face and body language, and it's actually fucking killing him.

"Rose, stop it," he scolds, snapping her out of her reverie, and she raises watery eyes to his.

"I can't lose you," she croaks. "I just can't."

His thinks he can hear his heart break and shatter on the floor. "You won't," he promises, and he crushes her against his chest, wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his face in her thick curls. She's trembling, her face pressed into his neck as she mumbles, "I didn't know. I didn't know. I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

"It's alright," he soothes, even though it's not. "It's okay."

But something very real and precious and rare has broken between them today, and he knows. They both know, and when he ends the embrace, sliding his hands down her back and resting them at her hips, she stares up at him.

"Everything is going to change now, isn't it?" she whispers.

He nods.

"Well," she says with a brave little smile. "I guess we finally fucked it up."

"I fucked it up," he corrects firmly. "This isn't your fault."

"Oh, but it is. I should've seen the signs. Lily did, but then, Al's always said that I'm the most romantically retarded individual he's ever known."

He tucks a stray curl behind her ear. "Never bothered me."

Her eyes flutter closed and she leans her forehead against his collarbone, hands clutching at his lapels. "You're my best friend," she tells him.

"I know."

He can feel her frown. "You're supposed to say that I'm yours, too," she scolds, and he doesn't know whether its her scent or the way her lips feel against his chest or the hilarity of the whole scenario, but he grips her face in his hands and presses his lips to hers, swallowing her gasp and contemplating the reality of a higher being when she kisses him back.

He presses her back against the wall, and she uses the leverage to loop her legs around his middle, her hands knotted into his hair while his cup her bum over her school skirt. His mouth travels from her mouth to her jaw to her throat to the sensitive dip at her throat, and when she grinds her hips against his in approval, he presses a staying hand to her waist. "Easy, Red," he whispers, dropping his forehead to hers.

"You're a ponce," she whispers back, and she begins to work on his buttons, fingers quick and efficient, and Scorpius realizes that he'll probably burn in Hell for the thoughts he's having about his best mate since First Year, but he can't muster a single flying fuck because suddenly all that matters is this wild and beautiful girl, and her taste and feel and he's overwhelmed by one thought: _finally._


End file.
